The Battersea Park Affordable Art Fair is back and is now open until Sunday inclusive! March sees the return of London’s friendliest art fair, welcoming art lovers, art connoisseurs and art novices alike to discover affordable art by thousands of artists under one roof. The 117 participating galleries come from all over the UK and abroad, bringing their choicest selections for you to browse, buy, and enjoy.

Everything is for sale between £40 and £4,000, with paintings, original artist-made prints, sculpture and photography all on show. Whether you are looking for artwork that is traditional or contemporary, humorous or edgy, by a famous name or an undiscovered talent, there is something for everyone!

Tomorrow, 5 March 2014, at 10.30 am, Christie’s will be holding an auction of the private collection belonging to Les Trois Garçons. The flamboyant trio will let go under the hammer an important share of their incomparable collection of various objects taken predominantly from the content of their well-storied Château de la Goujeonnerie in the French Vendée (who can forget the December 2011 issue of The World of Interiors exclusively featuring the château and the magnificent cover depicting the dramatic entrance hall enveloped in a hue of pale blue and its two taxidermy unicorn heads guarding the château like the Sphinx of Thebes), along with a small number of specially selected iconic pieces from their Shoreditch restaurant, London home, Loungelover bar and private collection.

Citing their hectic lifestyle and not having enough time to visit the château, the maximalist triumvirate has decided to part with their diverse collection (they have not sold La Goujeonnerie and it is now available for rental) amassed over the years from far-flung locales and diverse eras. It regroups Post War and Contemporary Art, 20th century design, sculpture, lighting, ceramics, soft furnishings and garden furniture, totalling 380 lots, an overall low estimate of £700,00 and boasts pieces ranging from as low as £500 up to £80,000 (the latter is by Jonathan Wateridges’ Constitution, an incredible 3D work of art depicting a submerged shipwreck, made of layering of paint on eight perspex sheets heightening the sense of perspective and depth, ultimately drawing the viewer into the scene). The exhibition opened to the public last Saturday at Christie’s South Kensington branch and will end today at 5pm (apology for the late notice; the exhibition was unexpectedly ready last Saturday morning instead of yesterday morning and A-Gent of Style worked round the clock to deliver this to you this morning).

A-Gent of Style is delighted to have collaborated with the distinguished auction house for the second time (some of you might remember the Michael Inchbald sale last January) and to be featuring this noteworthy sale today on his blog. Last Saturday morning, A-Gent made his way to Christie’s to meet Associate Director, Specialist Adrian Hume-Sayer who is in charge of the sale and who very kindly gave him a private tour of the freshly unveiled exhibition and allowed him to delve into Les 3 Garçons’ quirky and playful world, which came even more into life in the evening glow at last night’s glamourous party.

For most of you, Les Trois Garçons need little introduction. The creative trio composed of Frenchman Michel Lasserre, Malaysian-born Hassan Abdullah and Stefan Karlsson from Sweden are the restaurateurs, antiques dealers and now interior designers (with a range of furniture) who shot to fame soon after opening the 1880s Victorian pub in Shoreditch’s Club Row, then not the hipsters neighbourhood of today, which they had acquired in 1966 and transformed by 2000 into the hip and uniquely camptastic restaurant we all know (as well as a home on the other two floors above the establishment) and which has since long been a celebrity destination for stars such as HR Madge-ness, Nicole Kidman, Grace Jones, Kate Moss, Damien Hirst, Tom Ford, Gilbert & George, Ronnie Wood and Yoko Ono, to name but a few. L3G, as their acronym goes, are also the owners of the glamorous cocktail bar Loungelover, newly converted cafe-come-design shop Maison Trois Garcons, both situated nearby the restaurant in Shoreditch, on the trendy Redchurch Street (the very same street where the Klaus Haapaniemi store, featured by A-Gent of Style last November, is situated).

Les Trois Garçons

The Apartment

Loungelover

Maison Trois Garçons

Château de la Goujeonnerie

The exhibition and sale are vast and plentiful. The oddball opulence on display saturates the senses and will not leave anyone indifferent. With hindsight, it can best be described as an Alfies Market on acid that would make Liberace’s homes look butch in comparison. So if it is the Kelly Hoppen-esque taupe interiors you like, you might want to look away now. The playful and exaggerated repository is an eye-catching bounty replete with an eclectic mix of Baroque, Rococo, Gustavian, Chinoiserie, Victoriana, Art Deco, and every other decade up to today. The objets range from bejewelled mirrors and gilted chandeliers, stuffed animals (definitely not for the taxidermy phobic), crane bronzes, baroque altar reredos, a James Bond-like globe lounge chair, a gilt brass palm tree floor lamp, an array of pineapple ornaments, Louis XV-style bergères, a Ming Dynasty Luohan figure, a 1930s Baguès beaded ship to a Roman gold-painted eagle, japanned black bombé chests inlaid with mother of pearl, a 1970s Italian dandelion glass ceiling and a rosewood desk attributed to Paolo Buffa, and many many others.

What struck A-Gent of Style the most in his research is how refreshing it is to see the carefree and decadent approach the self-proclaimed compulsive buyers have taken when choosing their objects, eschewing in most cases the provenance, value or investment and being driven solely by passion and impulse. “We don’t have rules”, they say. “We just go for what we like. It can be from China, Argentina, it can be Art Deco, it can be contemporary, it doesn’t really matter. It’s about where we’ve been, who we’ve met. Price doesn’t come into it either; it’s more about the aesthetic of something rather than the value.” There is also a certain element of humour and self-deprecation in Les Trois Garçons and their collection that make people smile, if not laugh, which we all need more than often in our life and also in our home.

This rare sale offers a one-off opportunity to get hold of statement pieces that are bound not to go unnoticed whatever the setting is. A-Gent of Style urges you to visit the exhibition today and, failing that, you can view the full online catalogue here.

A-Gent of Style would like to thank Christie’s and especially Adrian Hume-Sayer, the sale specialist, for all their help and support.

Spring is approaching; the temperatures are going up, flowers and trees are in bloom, birds have come back from their migration and publishers are releasing some exciting new volumes in the next few months. Here is a selection of some books that are hitting the shelves in March.

Don’t forget you can hover your cursor over each image to see the rest of the book cover or click on the image to see the cover in full in a new window.

All books are available or can be ordered fromThe Bookshop at the Design Centre Chelsea Harbour +44 (0) 20 7351 6854 / @theBOOKSHOPat